If society were operating the way that most of us would like it to operate there would be no need for day dedicated to a set cause. Sadly what these designated days have done is see many highlight an issue and then move on.There is no lasting impact or strategy.
This is something that is sadly extremely prevalent in the world of sport, especially where as covered in Declined – Insufficient Funds, sports are reliant on Government funding. Many sports receive funding to recognise one of these issues, some see it as a genuine ongoing task to educate and involve those sections of the community, and warrant the funding. Others take the easy option, name one round of fixtures the “Be Kind to a Cat Round,” take the money and move on. The money rarely making its way to the area it is intended and simply evaporating into the ether that is sports administration.
It is incredible to read that the United Nations has 172 designated International days each year. Which means almost every other day is designated to some cause. Is that too many? In the month of June there are only seven days on which there is not an allocated International day of something. On some days though we double up, for example the 26th of June is allocated to being the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking and also the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Is it any wonder that we have become blasé about many of these days?
How many nations in the Western World will acknowledge the day allocated on April 25th? This day is recognise something that causes three hundred million acute illnesses a year and at least one million deaths. Compare that to Coronavirus, and you begin to understand the imbalance in the reporting. The 25th of April is Malaria day. At the time of writing Coronavirus has killed just over 4,000 people world wide, and according to Livescience “the median age of patients skews older, between 49 and 56 years old.” The reason for this is because the disease appears to be having the least impact on children. However that is the same with measles and chicken pox, where the older you are when you contract it the more harm it can do. Malaria is indiscriminate, it kills all ages. Yet still the media will talk about the Coronavirus in April over Malaria.
The reason Not The Footy Show was created in 2005 was to give sports other than AFL airtime, and promote many of the athletes who achieved but could not receive any media coverage. One section of the population where that was definitely the case was women’s sport, and female athletes. It is very good to see the shift in the media over the past 15 years. We have featured many a female athletes and sports on the show in that 15 years and are strong supporters of women’s sport, so maybe that was why on the weekend when these athletes were celebrating International Women’s Day, something did not feel right.
Was it tokenism? Was it sport ticking a box? Or was it sport jumping on a bandwagon, or even individuals looking to steal the limelight?
Women in sport have so much to be proud of, yet the feeling was that their history, that pioneering spirit was lost as the focus seemed to be on modern day athletes and the fad of creating celebrities. It was in some cases more about individuals than women as a whole.
The Women’s T20 World Cup Final was played on the weekend and here was a prefect opportunity to celebrate those women who fought for women’s cricket to be accepted, or played a key part in the evolution of the game.
For a start it was Christina Wiles, of Kent, who in 1807 bowled round-arm deliveries to her brother. She was unable to bowl underarm due to her wide and huge skirt impeding her delivery of the ball. This began a specific style which would overtake underarm bowling which dominated the game at the time, and overarm bowling would evolve from there.
With International Women’s Day coinciding with the Final of the tournament was there not the opportunity to acknowledge Lily Poulett-Harris who in 1894 founded and captained the Oyster Cove side in Tasmania, and created a league? She was only 20 years old, when she did this, and was sadly dead at 23.
The first women’s cricket club in England was formed in 1887 at Nun Appleton in Yorkshire and was named the White Heather Club. Yorkshire has been known for being a county where ‘men and are men,’ and the men are boss. So imagine how hard it would have been 133 years ago setting up a team and playing.
At the FIH Pro League matches in Perth the captains of the Australia and Argentina Men’s hockey teams read from pieces of paper given to them by the International Hockey Federation on equality in their sport. Hockey has been light years ahead of many sports in this area, and should be proud and promoting equality, but was this the right platform?
Once again is this what International Women’s Day is about? Surely it should be about celebrating the great women who have gone before, so that the women of today have the opportunities that they do?
Women’s hockey in Australia was light years ahead of the men. In 1910 the Australian Women’s Hockey Association was formed, the men’s was not created until 1925. The women played their first international match in 1914, the men played their first International in 1922. The International Hockey Federation was formed in 1924, and the International Federation of Women’s HockeyAssociations was created in 1927. The Men would not play a World Cup tournament until 1971. The IFWHA organised a global conference and a tournament and in 1933 in Denmark six teams played in what was essentially a World competition.
Surely these are the stories that we should be celebrating on International Women’s day, the women who had the vision, the fight, and the will to make it happen for all of those who are enjoying the spoils today; not so much the women’s hockey players financially!
What we witnessed had little to do with equality and it was hard to see what there was to celebrate. It appeared to be more about creating more female celebrities than celebrating what women can achieve. One female friend stated that she would have nothing to do with such events as “it is not about authentic women.” She said that she did not feel that what was promoted was “attainable,” and that it was “not inspiring.”
As a male who has tried in a small way to promote Women’s Sport and female athletes, it certainly seemed to no longer be about inspiration. What was witnessed at the weekend was a missed opportunity to inspire, to make women realise what they can achieve. It should have been a celebration of the women who made it possible, who gave this generation the belief that they could reach the heights that they have climbed. Imagine how powerful it would have been to have brought those two generations of women together, and to hear them swap tales.
Then again maybe I am wrong…
It was the Irish poet William Yeats who wonderfully wrote that “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” With apologies to Yeats, today education should not be the ticking of a box in order to satisfy an outcome, but creating a spark that starts a fire of inspiration.
